Nations without States: A Historical Dictionary of Contemporary National Movements

Greek troops moved north to reoccupy North Epirus in December 1914 but
withdrew under pressure from French and Italian troops in 1916. An autonomous
state with its capital at Korytsa, supported by the French, collapsed with the
French withdrawal. In 1920 Albanian troops occupied the region, and the Epirote
districts were integrated into the Albanian state.

Epirote demands for regional political and religious autonomy in southern Albania were ignored or suppressed over the next decade. In 1935 the Albanian
government forcibly closed Greek institutions and schools and removed all Orthodox Christians from official positions. Under the leadership of Ethem Toto,
a dismissed government minister, the Epirote Christians rebelled in 1936. Intent
on severing North Epirus from Albania, the rebels took control of much of the
region, but the rebellion collapsed with Toto's death in 1937.

Fascist Italian troops occupied Albania in October 1939. The Epirotes again
rebelled and, with Greek support, organized a provisional government, which
collapsed with the German invasion of 1941. Near the end of World War II, in 1944, the Greek government reiterated its claim to the region, but in 1945 the
Allied powers reestablished the prewar frontiers.

Albania's Communist government, installed in 1946, quickly suppressed all
opposition. The radical Communist administration instituted decades of harsh
rule and intense assimilation pressure on the Greek Epirote minority. In 1967
the government closed all religious institutions, outlawed all public worship, and
officially denied the existence of the Orthodox Christian population in North
Epirus.

The collapse of Communism allowed the Epirotes, for the first time in over
forty years, to organize. Demanding the same rights that the new Albanian
government demanded for the Albanian minority in Kosovo* in Yugoslavia, in 1991 the Epirotes appealed to Greece. The ensuing crisis in the region polarized
the positions. In 1993-94 hundreds of Greek Epirote military officers, administrators, and teachers lost their positions as the Albanian government moved to
suppress the growing national movement following demands for a referendum
on independence for North Epirus. The government closed Greek-language
schools and institutions that the administration claimed supported Epirote separatism.

In May 1994, amid a growing crisis between Greece and Albania, the Albanian government arrested and tried for separatism several of the Epirote Greek
leaders. The crisis deepened in November 1994 with government attempts to
replace the Soviet-era constitution with a new constitution that the Epirotes
claim restricts their rights.

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